Passion & Purpose: Believing the Church Can Still Change the World
Jimmy Seibert (Clear Day)
Antioch Community Church opened its doors in 1999, hoping to advance the gospel in one of the most impoverished and crime- and drug-ridden neighborhoods of Waco, Texas. Since then, Antioch has grown into an international network, planting churches in every corner of the globe. In Passion & Purpose, Seibert, founder of Antioch Ministries International, shares the story of how simple devotion to Jesus and love of neighbor bore astonishing fruit in the unlikeliest circumstances. "We learned to live with people instead of ministering to them," he writes. "Sure, we learned they had needs, but we also had needs. We learned from and loved one another."
How (Not) to Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor
James K. A. Smith (Eerdmans)
Taylor's magisterial A Secular Age is too daunting and scholarly for most readers. But Smith, a philosopher at Calvin College and editor of Comment magazine, believes Taylor's inquiry into the sources of modern secularism has important insights that deserve a larger audience. How (Not) to Be Secular offers what Smith calls "a small field guide to a much larger scholarly tome." But Smith aims higher than a glorified book report. He wants to think about how we should then live, as residents of the world Taylor portrays. Smith invites readers into "an adventure in self-understanding, a way to get our bearings in a 'secular age'—whoever 'we' might be: believers or skeptics, devout or doubting."
The Quiet Revolution: An Active Faith That Transforms Lives and Communities
Jay F. Hein (Waterfall Press)
As director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives under George W. Bush, Hein helped promote the notion, controversial then and now, of a fruitful partnership between government and religious charitable organizations. In The Quiet Revolution, Hein, now president of Sagamore Institute, describes the history behind Bush's faith-based initiative and examines how the program has helped to revitalize communities and neighborhoods. The book celebrates the "hometown heroes who put their faith into action quietly and powerfully to vanquish the enemies of disease, crime, poverty, and injustice."
A Transforming Vision: The Lord's Prayer as a Lens for Life
William Edgar (Christian Focus Publications)
We're too familiar with the Lord's Prayer, says Edgar, professor of apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary. We hear and recite it so often, so unthinkingly, that we're prone to lose sight of its power. A Transforming Vision walks readers through the iconic phrases of the Lord's Prayer, shedding fresh light on how the passage can profoundly shape a believer's walk with God. But Edgar goes further, showing how "this extraordinary prayer is also an apologetic for a biblical worldview," one that offers "a remarkable statement of faith, as it stands opposed to a confused world."
Kevin DeYoung (Crossway)
When it comes to knowing what the Bible is all about, Reformed pastor-writer DeYoung believes the best resource is the Good Book itself. "I want to convince you," he writes, "that the Bible makes no mistakes, can be understood, cannot be overturned, and is the most important word in your life, the most relevant thing you can read each day." In Taking God At His Word, DeYoung explores what the Bible says about how believers should respond to and rely upon its own words. He aims to "get us believing what we should about the Bible, feeling what we should about the Bible, and doing what we ought to do with the Bible."
